Reappointment of Michael Delli Carpini
as Dean of the Annenberg School for Communication

We have received the report of the Consultative Review Committee on the Reappointment of Michael Delli Carpini as Dean of the Annenberg School for Communication (AlmanacSeptember 15, 2009), and we are delighted to recommend to the Trustees at their February meeting the reappointment of Dean Delli Carpini for a second term, to run through June 30, 2015.

After a comprehensive review of Dean Delli Carpini’s first term as Dean and the challenges and opportunities facing the Annenberg School, we concur with the Consultative Committee’s conclusion that Dean Delli Carpini’s first term was characterized by marked success across major dimensions: faculty recruitment and retention, student quality and satisfaction, financial and administrative management, grant-funded research, and engagement with the broader community.

Dean Delli Carpini solidified and strengthened the Annenberg School’s reputation as the nation’s pre-eminent school for the study of communication. During his first term, the School recruited and retained highly qualified faculty and made particular efforts to further diversify the faculty, expand junior faculty ranks, and increase coverage of global communication issues and emerging communication subfields. Student quality remained exceedingly high and recruitment outreach expanded. Staff report strong morale. Administrative and financial matters are well managed, and the School’s finances remain strong despite the challenges imposed by the worldwide economic downturn. A beautiful new building for the Annenberg Public Policy Center recently opened, and instructional and research space was renovated in the Annenberg School building. Dean Delli Carpini has also made his mark as an important presence on campus and in the broader scholarly community, and he has been a major force in strengthening the Annenberg School’s partnerships with other Penn schools.

The Annenberg School also faces challenges moving forward, which Dean Delli Carpini is well positioned and fully prepared to address. These include maximizing the sustainability of the School’s considerable strengths, building on the eminence and breadth of its faculty, addressing the structure and scale of the School’s academic programs, continuing its globalization and external relations initiatives, and determining how best to respond to emerging subfields. The economic downturn significantly affects every endowment-dependent School, and Annenberg is no exception. Dean Delli Carpini, correspondingly, has shown an exceptional willingness and ability to address these challenges in collaboration with his colleagues.

Because Dean Delli Carpini has performed exceptionally well in his first term, we are confident that he is the leader best positioned to help guide the Annenberg School through the next period in its already distinguished history. He has the strong support of his faculty, colleagues, staff, students, and alumni. We look forward to working closely with him in the months and years ahead as the Annenberg School works to achieve even greater eminence and visibility.